Pros:

Cons:

The Worms series of games have always been a bit off-kilter. In its initial incarnation as a time-sensitive 2D turn-based strategy game, Worms pitted cute little animated earth-munchers against one another with a vast arsenal of weapons and power-ups amid bright, colorful environments that got blown to bits in the process. As fans eagerly anticipate the first 3D incarnation of the series next year, Team 17 have created an unusual spin-off to keep us quite busy and amused: the rather addictive and hyperactive combat puzzle game, Worms Blast.

Bust-A-Worm?

Although Blast has the look of a Worms game, the gameplay is totally different. It's more like the puzzle-flavored Bust-a-Move, which involves shooting bubbles at puzzle pieces falling from the sky. In this game, you control a little boat-bound character armed with a bazooka that fires color-coded missiles. You can move left and right, tilt the cannon up and down to alter your trajectory, and collect other weapons and power-up crates, released by destroying puzzle pieces with a missile of the same color.

Since your character is in a boat, you also have to contend with rising tides, torrential weather conditions, sea monsters, and other hazards of the deep zooming around as you fight for survival. In most of the challenges, puzzle pieces gradually descend towards the water regardless of whether or not you shoot at them, so it's important to keep clearing the puzzle pieces lest you get pushed underwater. In addition, rising tides must be quelled by gathering falling stars, which are also among the puzzle pieces. If your aim is terribly off, and you hit nothing at all, cartoon items such as anvils, refrigerators, and cannonballs will fall from the sky, geared towards bonking you on the head and damaging your health. It's a far cry from the whole "you-take-a-turn, I-take-a-turn" format of the original games.

Worms Blast offers a number of gameplay modes. There are numerous full-screen challenges where you face the puzzles alone, as well as a number of head-to-head modes where you play via split screen against another person or the CPU. It's a good idea to play through some of the single-player challenges first -- they serve as a sort of boot camp, where you'll learn all the basics of puzzle combat (as odd as that may sound). As you progress in these single-player missions, you'll occasionally unlock new modes.

In one challenge, you've got six missiles and six tough-to-hit targets, but all the time in the world to hit them. In another, UFOs (composed of puzzle pieces) zoom towards the water and you've got to hit as many as possible directly in the belly before the timer runs out. Another challenge involves hitting rapidly descending targets on alternate sides of the screen in quick succession, adding a couple of seconds to the timer with each successful shot. There are simply too many variations in each mode to catalog here, which is a good thing. Some of the challenges are frustrating, but they're considerably varied and ultimately rewarding.

Timed target shooting is one of many intense challenges you'll face in puzzle mode.

Your progress in the main puzzle mode gets saved along the way, so once you pass a really tough challenge, you have the option of never looking back. You can also return to a challenge you enjoyed, or continue the remaining challenges with any character of your choice. The characters (which oddly enough, aren't limited to worms) have varying thresholds for damage, and their boats vary in terms of size and speed. There's also a tournament mode, in which you've got to survive for as long as possible during specific challenges, most of which are subtle variations of the ones introduced in the puzzle mode.